Boycott Games for Windows - Live Website
hopes to inspire a boycott of Microsoft's online gaming service, beyond the de
facto embargo of the service caused by general user apathy. At the root of the
campaign is vexation over charging for services previously free for PC gamers,
the large number of countries where LIVE gold accounts are not available for
purchase, Windows Vista exclusives, and complaints about DRM and customer service
woes that don't seem directly related to LIVE. Their vision of a boycott is
quite broad, and seems a bit impractical, as beyond specifying games to avoid,
they also outline an extensive list of developers to avoid and a suggest that
LIVE-supported titles not be reviewed.

keep repeating that and maybe it will become true - until then, enjoy the situation getting worse because piracy won't exactly change this

First off, "will become true"? Really? How many AAA PC-exclusive games come out each year? Now, how many AAA multiplatform games? How about mech sims? Vehicular combat? Space sims? cRPGs? No?

Take one look at 1996-2000 and you'll notice a wealth of classic PC games. Take one look at 2004-2008 and you'll notice a whole lot of ports.

As for piracy not changing the situation, yeah, that's true. Greed is what's changing the situation. Developers and publishers are trying to make games that appeal to the broadest audience which is why they focus their efforts on the consoles and pump out the same, dumbed down crap every year. Even if piracy were nonexistent, this would still be the case.

Hmm, I thought the only thing wrong with PC gaming was that almost every PC game coming out now is a multiplatform release (i.e. developed for the 360 and half-ass ported to the PC) that lacks the depth, variety, challenge and longevity of games made 10 years ago.

keep repeating that and maybe it will become true - until then, enjoy the situation getting worse because piracy won't exactly change this

This boycott seems pretty redundant, as Games for Windows LIVE has already been rejected by most PC gamers and Microsoft is well aware of this. Will they do anything to improve the situation? Probably not but only time will tell.

Oh, and in response to Smart's blog post:

Their Windows activation is pretty much safe, standard, non-intrusive etc.

Um, what? Last time I checked, the whole Windows activation thing was an extreme nuisance if you like upgrading your system. And it's not particularly effective at preventing piracy either, as both XP, Vista and every other MS product with activation has been cracked. Activation just inconveniences legal users.

There is only ONE* thing wrong with PC gaming: piracy.

Hmm, I thought the only thing wrong with PC gaming was that almost every PC game coming out now is a multiplatform release (i.e. developed for the 360 and half-ass ported to the PC) that lacks the depth, variety, challenge and longevity of games made 10 years ago.

I generally agree with the principals these guys are pushing but I'm not going to put my name on their particular initiative. The site reads like it was written by a 12 year old, has foul language and makes some very cheap stabs and misrepresents some of what they're complaining about. I don't disagree with the points but if they want this to be taken at all seriously and gain traction with the gaming press, it has to look professional, even if they are extremely passionate about their point of view. If they showed this to Microsoft or anyone who they would want to cover it, they'd get laughed out of the room.

Like I said, I get where they're coming from (I won't buy any games with GFW Live in it already) but their site doesn't do justice to their fight.

I disagree completely. These are the gamers. You don't need to be a college grad to drum up a boycott, complete with like minded people, foul language, bad spelling, misinformation, statements not grounded in reality, non-facts etc are the type of stuff that Free Speech and the right to rave, rant and piss on your neighbor's lawn are made of. Good times.

Apart from the fact that this is just the standard pissing in the wind "look at me" stuff and won't have any traction whatsoever, at least someone did it.

The fact that the timing of this came at a time when I did my own GfW rant in my own dev rant of this morning, is purely coincidental. But its kinda strange that.

good on them i say. people's wallets have the power to send a strong message to microsoft - if you aren't getting what you want then why pay for it?

_________________________________________________NO COOP = NO PURCHASENO MULTICORE SUPPORT = NO BUYNO NATIVE WIDESCREEN SUPPORT = NO CASH FOR YOUCRITICAL PATCH released within 2 weeks = RETURN TO STOREIN GAME ADVERTISING = GO ***** YOURSELVES

_________________________________________________"Money doesn't exist in the 24th century, the acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." - Jean-Luc Picard

Boycott approved...and it seems ridiculous to think that a service like Live could become popular on PC's because the same service, matchmaking, comes free with almost every game right now...

I think MS's ability to charge for LIVE stems from the fact that no one in the console market can compete with LIVE right now AND their exclusive content is popular enough that people will tolerate it. In the PC market Live is offering services that are sub par what is freely available and their exclusive content is a complete joke...

MS is basically trying to make PC gamers pay to play their exclusive Console games which is incredibly stupid.

And I think LIVE's value in the console market (as far as paying for a yearly subscription) is falling. I've let my membership lapse because LIVE has not been able to handle the growing numbers of players online. (lots of disco's, matchmaking can be great one min and awful the next) I bought 50 Forty-eight hour trial codes ($7.99!) and just punch those in when I want to play and I'm much happier with that. A few strange things occur though, in Halo 3 you can't play ranked games unless you have a full gold membership (1 mon, 3 mon, 12 mon) but you can play social games (unranked) but in CoD4 you can play any and all games and you rank up...

MS is exploiting it's Online dominance right now with games in the console market and I'm becoming jaded towards them,

That text of that boycott was written unprofessionally. This will decrease its chances of being taken seriously. Instead of facts, there is too much misrepresentation and that will only hurt the boycott.

Finally people who pay for things that used to be free without any added value are uninformed consumers and need some education.

This is what I thought when XBL came out on original XBox. Your paying for what? Match making? MS didn't even host servers for the games. YOU had to... on your NON dedicated XBox. Some games were imposable to play online because you would only find people opening games on slow as shit connections and they could go down at any time when that host wanted to stop playing.

Its not much better now. Still no dedicated servers for games. So your paying for match making? BFD. We have been doing that for FREE for years on PC. Map pack addons? That really ratchets my ass. You have to PAY if you want more maps because there is zero way to make your own. UT3 being the first game ever to have this ability.

The problem is most of console gamers have no clue and gladly bend over and take it in the ass.

Boycotting because Microsoft is "violating our rights as PC gamers"? It amazes me what some people think of as rights. Seriously, guys, playing the 'rights card' just makes this look ridiculous. You don't have the right to free anything or convenient anything from any company. Early multiplayer had a stint with pay-to-play in the late 90s, and it died because nobody was willing to pay. This will die out the same way, not because of an internet boycott over violated 'rights'.

I won't be boycotting for the simple reason that I don't use it. People that did get all they deserve imo. Just how you can buy a product then complain about it knowing full well what it does is bizzare.

Also I thought it was free unless you wanted to play against xbox users then it requires you to buy the gold membership?

I generally agree with the principals these guys are pushing but I'm not going to put my name on their particular initiative. The site reads like it was written by a 12 year old, has foul language and makes some very cheap stabs and misrepresents some of what they're complaining about. I don't disagree with the points but if they want this to be taken at all seriously and gain traction with the gaming press, it has to look professional, even if they are extremely passionate about their point of view. If they showed this to Microsoft or anyone who they would want to cover it, they'd get laughed out of the room.

Like I said, I get where they're coming from (I won't buy any games with GFW Live in it already) but their site doesn't do justice to their fight.